A Place To Lay My Head
by petercapaldiscoiffure
Summary: The Courier's many (mis)adventures across the Mojave. Eventual f!courier/Boone.


When the Courier saw the dinosaur in the distance, she had the presence of mind to wonder if she was hallucinating, and the weariness to not particularly care one way or the other. Approximately 5 hours after she'd decided on taking a 'shortcut' through the desert, she had been chased by scorpions, attacked by coyotes, and had a memorable encounter with what appeared to be a sentient ball of slime armed with tentacles and venomous spit. She was lightheaded from stim sickness and exhausted from hours of frantic running; had she truly discovered the world's last dinosaur, or perhaps just the Mojave's biggest mutated lizard, she wouldn't have been surprised.

So it was with some relief when she limped under a shadow, and looked up to see that it was not an ancient reptile come to end her misery, but a sign advertising - the giant dinosaur. And a motel that was somehow related to the giant dinosaur. She figured this meant it probably wasn't real and capable of eating her, and thought that maybe her luck was looking up. A sign meant a town, and a town meant - well, possibly raiders and weird bugs, but also shelter and maybe even an old mattress. It sounded like heaven, and the Courier mustered her strength to drag herself the last few hundred feet to Novac and, with any luck, the dirty mattress of her dreams.

—-

"Well, I am sorry, dear, but I can't afford to be charitable, not with caravans stalled and business so slow. But like I said, if you get those hundred caps scraped up, I'd sure be happy to rent you the room of your choosing."

The Courier could actually feel herself deflate. She was so close - she could practically hear the siren song of a bed and blanket just one room over. She heaved her backpack on the floor and started frantic rummaging, counting out each cap she found.

"Here" - she held up two handfuls, another pile at her feet - "this is 74 caps. I swear, if you let me stay for just a night, I can scavenge and scrounge up the rest by tomorrow evening."

The older woman pursed her lips, tapping her foot for a moment before gathering the caps and starting her own count. The Courier rocked back on her heels, sending a little prayer up to whatever deity might be listening. Finally, Jeannie May looked up.

"Well, let it never be said I didn't take pity on a poor soul. You ought to talk with the boys up there in the dinosaur about any ruins around here, what's crawling with vermin and the like - they know the lay of the land better than any of the townsfolk, I'd wager." She let out a chuckle, patting the Courier on the shoulder. "A bunch of homebodies is what we are around here, sorry to say."

The Courier slumped with relief, and took the proffered key from Jeannie. And when she climbed the stairs to her room and opened the door to find a large, clean bed with a fresh pillow, she couldn't even bring herself to care that the sweet motel proprietor had managed to clean out her entire cap stash for a single night's rest.

—-

The courier woke to pale morning sunshine slanting through the wooden slats of her window. She almost shoved her head under the pillow before remembering she was sleeping on borrowed time, and she groaned and rolled herself to the edge of the bed, managing to snatch a complimentary box of Sugar Bombs without falling off.

A silent cheer of victory later and she laid back, shoving cereal into her mouth and thinking over the day ahead of her -

_bathe._

_bathe again._

_meet dinosaur boys. _

_scavenge._

_try not to die._

_excellent._

She squinted at the sunlight coming through the window. She wondered what sorts of men ended up living in a dinosaur statue. _Did_ they live there?

_I'd live in a dinosaur. I wonder if it's free. _

She chewed her cereal and watched the dust motes drift in the sun beams, checking the time on her Pip Boy - 7:26. It was going to get hot soon enough, and she needed to get moving if she was going to dig up enough crap to secure her room.

_Well, there's no time like the present. Unfortunately._

—-

A day's worth of work, 30 pounds of scraps, four dead geckos and 35 caps later, the Courier sat at the bottom of the stairs to her newly secured room at the Dino Dee-lite, nibbling at a plate of barbecued squirrel. The sound of crickets and brahmin bells were her only company until a door clicked, causing her to look up from her meal. A man, older maybe, same NCR cap as Manny, was walking across the lot to the dinosaur.

_So that's the other 'boy'. Huh. Looks…cheerful. Wait, is he wearing sunglasses at night?_

She watched him as he passed Manny, just come down from his post. He gave the nighttime sniper a nod; it wasn't returned. Manny frowned and shook his head but kept on walking.

The Courier gave a wave to Manny herself, and he smiled and ambled over.

"Well well well, I see you managed to get yourself squared away with Jeannie May, and a little left over to boot." He nodded at her dinner.

"Eh, not much, but I figured I could splurge on a delicious gourmet meal of charcoaled rodent for one night. It's back to stale cereal tomorrow, though."

"Hey, it's better than nothing, right?"

The courier let out a rueful laugh. "True enough."

Manny leaned against the railing. The Courier could smell gun oil and sweat. He leaned over and sniffed.

"Damn, I'm hungry. Smells good." He looked up. "Say, you didn't manage to get any information on those ghouls while you were running around, did you?"

She took a bite of squirrel, not bothering to swallow before answering. "Ah, no. I was a little busy. Piling metal in my bag, shooting lizards, you know. The usual."

He chuckled. "I hear that. But remember, that guy that shot you isn't getting any closer. You might want to get on that."

The Courier took a swig out of her water bottle and peered up at him. "Or you could just give me the information I want and I could help you anyway because I live here now and I'm not a huge jerk?"

Manny paused, and then let out a laugh. "Yeah, that's a thing that could happen. It's not going to, but it could, in theory."

The Courier rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I figured." She sighed. "I'll head out there tomorrow, ok?"

Manny straightened, and he made to leave but stopped, looking back at her. He cocked his head.

"Look, I'm not an asshole, ok? But you know how many people out here say they're gonna do something, gonna help out and then just fuck off when they get what they want? Just about all of 'em. You say you won't, but I don't know that, right? I'm just using what I've got."

The courier frowned, shrugged. "Yeah. Ok."

Manny just looked at her, running a hand over his scalp and sighing. "You'll see. You're out here long enough, you'll understand."

And with that he turned and walked off, leaving the Courier to her meal.


End file.
